Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and analytics around what consumers buy and watch, recently released the first mobile media rankings based on audience measurement data from the company’s new Nielsen Smartphone Analytics. This new service uses metered data from thousands of Android and iOS smartphones in the United States to report actual consumer behavior.

According to the first mobile audience measurement data from metered smartphone usage, after the Android Market app itself, apps for Facebook, maps and mail had the highest active reach among U.S. Android users above the age of 18. (“Active reach” is defined as the percentage of Android owners who used an app within the past 30 days.”)

While many of the top 20 apps showed similar active usage by both male and female Android smartphone owners, there were notable differences in active reach for social apps. Facebook's mobile app saw an active reach of 81 percent for women Android smartphone owners compared to just 69 percent for male Android smartphone owners. Twitter also reached more women (16.5 percent) than men (13.4 percent). However, Google+, the newest social network, had more than twice the active reach among men (15.8 percent) than women (7.2 percent).

Outside of social media, apps like Kindle and Words With Friends had higher active reach among women, while Quickoffice Pro and the Amazon App store had higher active reach among men. Google Maps had a higher active reach among men, too: 77 percent active reach among men compared to 71.8 percent among women.